Installing New Motorized Blackout Blinds

*This post was made possible by the generous support of LazBlinds and features gifted product. All opinions are my own.

Do you remember at our last house when we installed blackout shades in our basement family room so that we could comfortably watch movies while the sun was still up? Well, we’ve been meaning to do that same upgrade at our new house. We’re allllllll about blackout blinds here at the Waller household because they are the one way that we can control natural light in our home when watching movies and sleeping. Another big reason why we’re such a fan of these types of window coverings is because we’re such sticklers about saving energy. There’s no better way to keep a room cool on a bright sunny summer day than with total blackout blinds or shades. Today, I thought I’d talk through the blackout blinds we ended up choosing for this house, and why we decided to splurge on a motorized option.

First of all, I need to show you the state of things as they were before installing our new blackout blinds. When we bought our home, the sunroom came ready to go with original metal blinds. I have to emphasize the word “original” here, though, because they were really on their last legs. The metal was bent in lots of places, they were really dusty (despite us cleaning them regularly), and many of the cords had become so twisted over the years inside the blind header that the shades didn’t close evenly or completely. They were a mess, and didn’t even really block all that much of the light when they did operate correctly, as you’ll see in the photos above. The final straw was just how long it took to manually put each of the eleven blinds down in the evening. We needed something more modern, and we really wanted to upgrade to motorized blinds so that we could operate the entire collection all at once with a remote.

After doing some research, we ultimately landed on these Motorized Blackout Blinds from LazBlinds. They were the right price at about $60 a pop when on sale (and still typically under a hundred when not on sale), were 100 percent light-blocking, and we could get a remote that lowered all of the blinds at once. Yes, the cost does come out to a pretty big investment, and we were lucky enough to have them gifted in exchange for this review, but we would have paid the full price many times over to get these new replacement blinds for our old metal ones. They’re custom-cut depending on the dimensions of your windows, and they come in a few different colors, too. We opted for “White” in case you’re curious.

I wanted to share a few tips when it comes to installation. If you’re installing multiple blinds, like we were, go ahead and unbox everything at the beginning. I took all of the parts and manuals out of the boxes, and then divided “like” items up into piles, that way I could grab what I needed quickly and efficiently. The worst part of this entire process, without a doubt, was removing the old blinds. They were installed using flat head screws, which tells me that they’re actually older than I even thought they were, and took forever to remove. The new blinds, on the other hand, each went up in a matter of minutes. I screwed the two included brackets into the window for an inside mount application, and then the blinds clicked right in.

I did struggle a tiny bit with programming the remote, but I’m the first to admit that techie things are not my strong suit, so this didn’t come as a surprise to me. Once I found the right paragraph in the instruction manual that I needed, I breezed through the process. I thought I’d help you if you’re doing a similar multi-blind installation by sharing the sequence that worked for me. You’ll find that information below in list format if you keep scrolling, and I also included photos of the manual and the section of the manual above that worked in the end.

To pair multiple blinds to one remote:

1. Remove the back plate of the multi-blind remote and set aside (note: it’s easier to take the battery compartment cover off these remotes by gripping it from the sides and pulling down rather than pressing down on the raised dotted arrow in the center top of the cover).
2. Put batteries in the remote to activate it; leave the battery compartment cover off to the side.
3. Remove the back plate of the first factory single-blind remote and set aside; put batteries in to activate it (again, don’t put the cover back on yet).
4. Press and hold P2 (located on the inside of the battery compartment) on the factory remote until you hear the blind beep and jog up and down once; do the same with the second P2 button inside the battery compartment of the same factory remote.
5. Press the first P2 button on the multi-blind remote so that the same blind jogs and beeps once. The blind is now paired to the multi-blind remote!
6. Repeat the same steps with each new blind, pairing them to their factory remotes, and then adding them one by one to the same multi-blind remote. Leave them all on the same channel on the remote in order to operate them all at once.

I hope that information helps you with your installation. It’s all really straightforward once you know the sequence, and, like I said, installation of the blinds themselves was a cinch. I love looking at those photos above, which demonstrate how the room looks with the blackout blinds down and the lights on and then with the lights off. Also, keep in mind that these photos were taken on a cloudless sunny spring day! Now, we have the perfect napping and/or movie-watching lounge, and I’ll tell you what…I’ve never feel quite so bougie as when I click that one button to lower or raise the blinds…It’s like a scene from a movie and so satisfying. I couldn’t possibly recommend this upgrade more! Next up on our blackout blinds installation journey? The bedrooms.

Pssst…You can watch the installation process in action here in a video that I created for the brand on Instagram!

*I earn a small percentage from purchases made using the affiliate links above. This allows me provide free creative content for you to read, save, and share. Rest assured that I never recommend products we wouldn’t use or don’t already love ourselves.